TRUMP: If Clinton wins, ISIS will 'take over this country'

Donald Trump at a rally in Florida. REUTERS/Mike Segar Donald Trump offered a stark warning Wednesday for voters considering backing Hillary Clinton: If she wins, he said, the terror group ISIS would take over the US.

A day after proclaiming himself unshackled from Republican Party officials, Trump spent the majority of a Florida campaign rally going full throttle against Clinton.

"We started off, we had no ISIS, and now, seven and a half years later, they're in, they think, 32 countries. And she's going to get rid of them?" Trump said.

He added: "They are hoping and praying that Hillary Clinton becomes president of the United States, because they'll take over not only that part of the world, they'll take over this country, they'll take over this part of the world. Believe me."

Wednesday's comments were the latest in a string of occasionally conflicting statements the Republican presidential nominee has offered about Clinton's role in the threat ISIS poses to the US. Earlier this year, Trump asserted that Clinton and President Barack Obama were the cofounders of ISIS— a claim from which he refused to back down and later clarified was intended as sarcasm.

The real-estate magnate's speech mostly focused on what he said were Clinton wrongdoings, ranging from largely unfounded allegations to criticisms of pored-over past Clinton scandals and revelations from the latest batch of emails published on WikiLeaks.

Trump criticized the FBI and the Department of Justice for their investigation into Clinton's use of a private email server and decision not to prosecute Clinton, reiterating his provocative promise to appoint a special prosecutor to "investigate the investigation" of Clinton's email practices.

The Republican presidential nominee has embraced anti-Clinton rhetoric more aggressively since last week, when a 2005 tape in which he boasted about kissing and groping women regardless of their consent surfaced.